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Yasin al-Qadi
Al-Qadi gave a long interview to a Saudi newspaper in which he admitted his acquaintance with Osama bin Laden, but had another, much more interesting name to drop: that of Vice President Dick Cheney. On Oct. 14, 2001, Al-Qadi told the newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, "I spoke to Cheney at length and we even became friends. I also got to know former U.S. President Jimmy Carter." The interview bore the headline "Yes, I Know Bin Laden and U.S. Vice President is My Friend." ---- Al Qadi is an associate of Sulaiman bin al-Ali (Sulaiman Kabbara) and has invested in many projects linked to him in the USA. Such as BMI and Ptech. ---- Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi A Saudi Arabian businessman once listed by the United States government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. A multi-millionaire from Jeddah, Qadi trained as an architect in Chicago, IL. He is the son-in-law of Sheikh Ahmed Salah Jamjoom, a former Saudi Arabian government minister with close ties to the Saudi royal family. The UN placed sanctions against Qadi in 1999 and 2000. Qadi's listing as a terrorist was overturned by several European courts, and his name was removed from blacklists by 2010. ------------------ Property Deals. The government of Albania seized Al-Qadi's properties in their country after 9/11. One was an elaborate construction project called "the Albanian twin towers." In 1991, Yassin al-Qadi transfers $820,000 from a Swiss bank account to the Quranic Literacy Institute, a Muslim charity based in Chicago. The charity uses the money to purchase land in Woodridge, a quiet town on the outskirts of Chicago. Al-Qadi claims the money is an interest-free loan for charitable purposes, but in a June 1998 affidavit, FBI agent Robert G. Wright Jr. will claim the investment is designed to produce money for Middle East terrorism. According to the affidavit, most of about $110,000 in income generated from the Woodridge property goes to Mohammad Salah, an admitted operative of Hamas. Salah is said to give $96,000 of this money to another Hamas operative to buy automatic rifles, pistols, and ammunition. In March 1992, al-Qadi will send an additional $27,000 directly to Salah. The institute will sell the Woodridge property for more than they had paid for it, but they will never repay al-Qadi’s $820,000. In June 1998, the US will seize the Quranic Literacy Institute’s assets. In 2004, a US court will rule that the money from al-Qadi’s original investment was used to fund a Hamas attack in 1996 that killed a US citizen. ------------------ Long in in depth bio from Wikipedia. Around 1986, Yasin al-Qadi became one of the principal investors in BMI Inc., a Shariah-compliant investment bank based in New Jersey. Qadi inherited "several million dollars" in 1988. In 1990, he began working for Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz of National Commercial Bank out of Jeddah, home of the Bin Laden familyQadi said that he was brought in to maintain good financial relations with fundamentalists throughout the Islamic world. In May 1992, Qadi created the Muwafaq Foundation, an Islamic charity supposedly incorporated for the purpose of providing famine relief and education in the Islamic world, particularly Pakistan. Qadi personally donated about $15 to $20 million from his fortune, and solicited donations from other wealthy Saudi families. Bin Mahfouz became a principal donor but later said that he was not involved in the operation of the charity after its establishment. Plaintiffs against Qadi et al. have claimed that Muwafaq used to funnel money to al-Qaeda. In 1994, Qadi contributed $5 million of the $20 million raised to start a software firm called Ptech Inc. until 2009 for the very same Saudi bank that had been accused by British intelligence and U.S. intelligence sources of transferring $3 million in "protection money" to Osama bin Laden back in 1999. Dr. Ahmed El-Kadi (Al-Qadi), head of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States between 1984 and 1994, told the Chicago Tribune in September 2004 that his family, the El-Kadi or Al-Qadi family of Cairo, were “early Brotherhood members.”. Yasin al-Qadi’s business dealings with leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, notably Suleiman Beheiri, Youssef Nada, and Abdurahman al-Amoudi, were alleged in several lawsuits filed after the 11 September attacks. Prosecutors and scholars have alleged that members of the Muslim Brotherhood played key roles in founding the al-Qaeda terrorist network., Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, Osama bin Laden’s mentor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s deputy, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 11 September attacks, all were members of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to court documents, BMI was "used as a financial conduit for al-Qaeda and Hamas supporters. The FBI discovered the true principals behind BMI were actually Yassin al-Qadi and Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook." Qadi says that his investment in BMI was “passive” and “entirely innocent.” He claims that he was not aware of a relationship between BMI and Marzook. In an October 2001 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Qadi said that he met with Osama bin Laden at religious gatherings in the 1980s, but "he said the encounters were unremarkable at a time when bin Laden's battle against the Soviets in Afghanistan attracted U.S. government support and donations from Mosques around the United States." In a December 2008 interview with the New York Times, Qadi added that he once met Osama bin Laden in Chicago. He gives the date as 1981. Intrigued by this interview, Steven Coll, a biographer of the Bin Laden family tracked the story down and discovered that the date of the visit was 1979. Osama "was here for two weeks in 1979, it seems, and he visited Los Angeles and Indiana, among other places." The date coincides with Qadi's arrival in Chicago in July 1979. Coll gives as his source a 2009 biography written by Osama's first wife, Najwa Bin Laden. 1989: Yasin al-Qadi told the New York Times in 2008 that he met with bin Laden in Pakistan in the late 1980s. In January 1993, Israeli police arrested Salah as he tried to cross a Gaza Strip checkpoint and held him for questioning. "They charged Salah with passing out more than $100,000 to Hamas military cells in several West Bank and Gaza cities. Israeli authorities confiscated $96,400 more from Salah's East Jerusalem YMCA hotel room." In 1998, Qadi donated money toward the construction of housing for students at Al-Iman University in Sanaa, Yemen.74 The university’s name is also translated asIman University or Al-Eman. A 2010 New York Times profile of the university indicates it is run by Muslims who follow Salafist practice, that is, a strict and puritanical form of Islam practiced by the Salafi (“ancestors” or first Muslims). Al-Iman is “not a typical college,” says Glenn R. Simpson of the Wall Street Journal. “Its curriculum primarily concerns the study and propagation of radical Islam.” Al-Iman’s founder, Sheikh Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, is a leader of the Yemen chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the U.S. Department of Treasury listed him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist associated with al-Qaeda in 2004.” The Treasury Department has accused Zindani of “actively recruiting for al-Qaeda training camps.” Zindani has been sanctioned by the UN as well. January - August 1998: Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, b. 1958 in Sudan, an alleged founder of al-Qaeda, was arrested and extradited to the United States in December 1998. According to Glenn R. Simpson of the Wall Street Journal, Qadi's bank records show that, between January and August 1998, he transferred $1.25 million from his Geneva bank account through an associate to an alleged al-Qaeda front company in Turkey known as Maram. Founded as a travel agency and import-export business, the company Maram was reportedly established by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, said to be one of al-Qaeda’s founding members and to have a history of moving money and shopping for weapons for the organisation. Heavy surveillance of Maram began when Salim started shopping for equipment that could potentially have been used to make a nuclear weapon. He was arrested on 15 September 1998 near Munich, Germany. A few months later, in December 1998, Qadi reportedly transferred shares in the company to two other men. One was Wael Hamza Julaidan, a Saudi businessman said to be a founder of al-Qaeda (the US officially designated Julaidan a financial supporter of al-Qaeda in 2002). The other transferee was reported to be Mohammed Bayazid, another alleged founder of al-Qaeda. On 20 December 1998 Salim was extradited to the United States, where he was charged with participating in the 1998 United States embassy bombings. In 2010, USA Today reported that he is an inmate of the ADX Florence facility in Florence, Colorado, sentenced to life without parole for stabbing a federal prison guard in the eye. In 1998, Qadi came under investigation by FBI Agent Robert Wright, Jr., head of the FBI's Terror Finance Unit, for potential ties to the 1998 United States embassy bombings. Wright told ABC news in December 2001, that his supervisors at FBI killed the investigation and forbid him to file criminal charges. The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on 7 August 1998, in which 223 people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. More than 4,000 people were injured. The date of the bombings marked the eighth anniversary of the arrival of American forces in Saudi Arabia. The attacks were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to the attention of the American public for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. FBI Agents Richard Wright and John Vincent told ABC News they had begun an investigation of bin Laden's connections to the embassy bombings, and their investigation led to a financial network in the Chicago area. "The agents say some of the money for the attacks led back to the people they had been tracking in Chicago and to a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman, Yassin al-Kadi." Wright later published the story of his frustrated investigation in a book titled Operation Vulgar Betrayal. Specifically, Ptech was paid by the Federal Aviation Administration to find weaknesses in the FAA’s response plans for events like the terrorist hijacking of a plane over U.S. airspace. Suheil Laher was Ptech’s chief software architect. “When he wasn’t writing the software that would provide Ptech with detailed operational blueprints of some of the most sensitive agencies in the U.S. government, he was writing articles in praise of Islamic holy war.” He was “fond of quoting Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden’s mentor and the head of Maktab al-Khidamat, which was the precursor of Al Qaeda.” Yasin al-Qadi was never formally charged with a crime by the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. “As is customary in such cases, Washington has presented no direct evidence linking Mr. Kadi to terrorism,” the New York Times reported in 2008. “But it has made public a dense labyrinth of associations and business and personal ties that it says establishes Mr. Kadi’s relationship with Mr. bin Laden and his allies.” “We have not found Mr. Kadi guilty of anything,” Adam J. Szubin, director of OFAC, told the Times. “But we have found that he is a supporter of terror.” Expert investigator Jean-Charles Brisard presented a report to the UN Security Council in December 2002 entitled “Terrorism Financing: Roots and Trends of Saudi Terrorism Financing” alleging that Qadi was “one of the main individual Saudi sponsors of Al-Qaeda.” Al-Qadi denied the allegation as totally untrue. “I don’t have any connection, be it close or distant, with Al-Qaeda or its leader Bin Laden, either directly or indirectly,” Qadi told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, in an interview, contradicting other statements. In his 29 August 2007 Wall Street Journal article "Well Connected, A Saudi Mogul Skirts Sanctions" Glenn R. Simpson reported that Yasin al-Qadi skirted UN sanctions placed against him by transferring his investments in the Turkish BIM supermarket chain to Zuhair Fayez, a friend and silent partner who held the money in 2004 through an off-shore company called Worldwide Ltd. in the Isle of Man. Like Qadi, Fayez is a multi-millionaire architect from Jeddah. He owns a firm, Zuhair Fayez Partnership (ZFP), that has subcontracted on several projects with the Saudi Binladin Group, the construction firm run by the wealthy family of Osama bin Ladin. Legal action December 2001: Appeals listing and asset freeze In December 2001, Qadi filed a challenge to the EU listing and asset freeze in the European Court of First Instance (General Court). His appeal was based on a claim that he had been denied fundamental due process.113 On 21 December 2001, Qadi’s lawyers also petitioned the U.S. Department of Treasury (OFAC) for reconsideration of his listing and asset freeze.113 edit Turkish protection After 11 September 2001, Yasin al-Qadi moved many of his operations to Istanbul, Turkey and Switzerland. Forbes reported that Qadi is a friend of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and that through his friendship with highly placed Turks he was able to escape sanctions while living in Turkey.114 Cuneyd Zapsu, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Erdogan, reportedly donated tens of thousands of dollars to Qadi, and Zapsu's mother donated "a cool quarter million dollars."115 Erdogan is quoted as having once said "“I know Mr. Qadi. I believe in him as I believe in myself. For Mr. Qadi to associate with a terrorist organization, or support one, is impossible.”115 edit November 2002: Named as a defendant in 911 lawsuit On 15 August 2002, firefighters, rescue workers and more than 600 relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks filed a 15-count, $116 trillion lawsuit against Osama bin Laden, the Saudi Bin Laden Group, three Saudi princes, the government of Sudan, seven international banks, eight Islamic foundations, charities and subsidiaries, and many other defendants, including several individual terror financiers.116117118 Yasin al-Qadi was added to the list of defendants on 22 November 2002, along with 50 more people and organizations, bringing the total number of defendants to 186.119120 The amount of money sought was reduced to $1 trillion, but the number of plaintiffs soon increased to 2,500 after the suit was widely publicized.121 Technically, Qadi was part of the "Third Amended Complaint" in the case of Thomas E. Burnett, Sr., et al. v. Al Baraka Investment and Development Corporation, et al., originally filed in the District of Columbia by attorneys from the Motley Rice Law Firm.122 Informally, the case is called the "911 Lawsuit," and it is a landmark case that has been examined in great detail by legal scholars.123 In 2005 the case was combined with several other lawsuits to become In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, MDL 1570, filed in the Southern District of New York. The case thus grew to more than 6,500 plaintiffs, collectively called "9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism."122 edit March 2004: Delisting request denied by OFAC On 12 March 2004, OFAC issued a 20-page unclassified memorandum denying Qadi’s request for reconsideration.124125 OFAC determined that Qadi played "a significant leadership role" in the Muwafaq ("Blessed Success") Foundation, as one of six trustees, and the others "delegated . . . the running and the operation of the Foundation" to Qadi, who "was the driving force behind the administration of the foundation." He "effectively conceded that he directly supervised the individual country offices."125 OFAC relied on Qadi's involvement in Muwafaq and, in particular, activities claimed to have occurred in Bosnia, Albania, Sudan and Pakistan, to conclude that "Kadi financially supported terrorist activities, primarily through Muwafaq, but also through other Kadi-owned entities." It considered Qadi's "relationship with and financial transfers to, designated terrorists Abdul Latif Saleh, Wa'el Julaidan, and Chariq Ayadi -- who were all involved in Muwafaq."125 According to OFAC's findings, "Muwafaq gave logistical and financial support to Al-Gama'at Al-Islamiya, a mujahadin battalion in Bosnia that was designated as SGDT on October 31, 2001. The organization also transferred $500,000 to terrorist organizations in the Balkans in the mid-1990s."125 OFAC found that Muwafaq "was involved in arms trafficking from Albania to Bosnia," and concluded that "as of late 2001, Kadi had continued to finance institutions and organizations in the Balkans after Muwafaq had ceased operations there, including two entities that were designated as SDGTs in early 2002 -- the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society's Pakistan and Afghanistan offices, and the Bosnia-Herzegovina branch of the Al-Haramain Foundation."125 edit September 2004: Files complaint against Swiss prosecutor On 21 September 2004, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court ruled unanimously in Qadi's favor with regard to complaints brought by Qadi's lawyers against the Swiss prosecutor, Deputy Swiss Attorney General Claude Nicati. The Swiss court ordered that Qadi's lawyers be given full access to Nicati's entire file, including all notes taken by Nicati of his meeting with Jean-Charles Brisard.126 “Brisard is the lead investigator for the US lawyers in the civil action brought in the US courts on behalf of the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and cannot therefore be regarded as independent,” his lawyers said. “Of particular concern to Al-Qadi was his discovery that Brisard passed to US lawyers documents he received from Nicati’s file in his capacity as expert."127 On 27 March 2006, an extraordinary prosecutor appointed to investigate the matter concluded that Qadi's allegations were baseless and dismissed the action brought by Qadi. The prosecutor found that "there is no indication that the person you namely denounced, M. Jean-Charles BRISARD, or any of his assistants, had communicated information covered by the secrecy of the function he should have respected in the framework of the analysis mandate delivered to him by M. Claude NICATI Attorney General of Switzerland at the end of February 2004 in the case regarding your client."128 edit 2004: Accused of using university to launder money In response to a 2004 lawsuit brought by 911 families against Qadi in the Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland, Qadi denied that he knowingly used Al-Iman university as a front for laundering money to al-Qaeda. Qadi’s lawyers emphasized that the paper trail shows the money that he gave to Al-Iman University in 1998 did not buy arms, but was used to supply low-cost housing to students at a religious education facility.7477 edit September 2005: EU denies request for delisting In September 2005, the EU Court of First Instance (General Court) denied Qadi’s appeal, saying that compliance with EU law need not be considered because the UN Security Council has primacy. Qadi appealed to the EU Court of Justice.124 edit December 2005: Wins case in Switzerland The Federal Criminal Court in Berne, Switzerland, "cleared Al-Qadi of any wrongdoing in a case stemming from the 9/11 attacks," his lawyers announced on 12 December 2005. The charges alleged that Al-Qadi gave money in 1998 ostensibly to construct student housing at Al-Iman University in Yemen while knowing that the funds may have ended up supporting Al-Qaeda’s plan to attack New York City.129 “I am very happy to know that my friend Al-Qadi has been cleared of all charges by the Swiss court,” Zuhair Fayez, a Jeddah-based architect, told Arab News on 25 December. He described Qadi as a reputable businessman and said the individuals and agencies that falsely accused Qadi of funding terrorism must be held responsible for damaging his reputation and interests.129 edit December 2007: Delisted by Switzerland On 13 December 2007, based on the results of its own six-year investigation, a Swiss court decided to remove Qadi from its list of blocked terrorists. Arab News, a Saudi newspaper based in Jeddah, reported that Qadi was exonerated “on all charges” and said that his money in Swiss banks and the Geneva-based Faisal bank would be unfrozen.16 Switzerland is not a member of the European Union and therefore had no obligation to comply with the EU listing.124 edit September 2008: EU Court of Justice rules in favor of Qadi In 2008 the European Court of Justice overturned sanctions against Qadi by individual European Union governments, on the grounds the EU nations had not offered those sanctioned a chance for a judicial review.11 On 3 September 2008, the EU Court of Justice (higher court) ruled in favor of Qadi, “saying UN agreements cannot have the effect of prejudicing constitutional principles agreed to in the treaty establishing the European Community. The court found the EU regulation allowing listing and asset freezes to breach fundamental human rights, since no evidence was communicated to Kadi, and the right of defense and effective judicial review were prejudiced. It gave EU authorities three months to remedy these defects, leaving the sanctions in place during that time.”124130131 According to Forbes Magazine none of the bodies that has sanctioned Al Qadi has made public any of the evidence upon which the sanctions are based.114 On 22 October 2008, Martin Scheinin, in a report to the United Nations Security Council, suggested greater openness and transparency for the reasons individuals and organizations were being sanctioned.11 He stated: "Leaving things as they are at the U.N. level ... is the least preferred option, as it would result in a wave of litigation and the credibility of the overall United Nations counterterrorism framework would be at risk." edit November 2008: EU Commission renews listing and asset freeze In October 2008, the EU Commission (sanctions agency) provided to Qadi’s attorneys a brief summary of the UN’s reasons for listing Qadi, and they gave Qadi an opportunity for comment. On 28 November 2008, the EU Commission renewed its listing and assets freeze against Qadi.124 edit December 2008: Partially delisted by UK Treasury In December 2008, the UK Treasury removed Yasin al-Qadi from its list of persons designated as terrorists under its Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001 (the "2001 Order"), but left Qadi on a second list of persons designated as terrorists under separate UK legislation, the Al Qaeda and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2006 (the "2006 Order"), which contained different listing criteria.132 According to his UK attorneys at the Carter-Ruck firm, "this delisting followed a comprehensive review by the UK Treasury of the case against Mr. Kadi, including a review of the materials which had been used to support Mr. Kadi's original designation, after which the UK Treasury concluded that "the case against Kadi) no longer meets the test set out in ... the Terrorism Order."[132 edit January 2009: Kadi v Timothy Geithner et al On 16 January 2009, Qadi filed suit against officers of the U.S. Department of Treasury (OFAC) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Yassin Abdullah Kadi v. Timothy Geithner et al., Civil Action No. 09-0108; and Kadi v. Paulson et al., a request for agency decision review assigned to Judge John D. Bates, Case 28-1331).133134 The lawsuit and request for agency review challenged Qadi’s designation as a terrorist and the asset freeze. Qadi raised “constitutional claims regarding due process, free speech, and protection from unreasonable seizure of assets.”135 edit February 2009: Second challenge to EU listing and EU freeze In February 2009, Qadi filed a new lawsuit with the EU General Court (formerly the Court of First Instance), challenging the EU’s 28 November 2008 decision to renew his listing and assets freeze.124 edit August 2009: UN clarifies reasons for listing Qadi On 13 August 2009, the United Nations Security Council Committee concerning Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities (the "Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee") posted additional information and a narrative summary of their reasons for listing Yasin Abdullah Ezzeddine Qadi.136137 The reasons included: ▪ Al-Qadi's acknowledgement of his role as founding trustee and director of the actions of the Muwafaq Foundation, a foundation which historically operated under the umbrella of the Makhtab al-Khidamat, an organization which was the predecessor of Al-Qaida and which was founded by Usama bin Ladin ▪ Al-Qadi's decision in 1992 to hire Shafiq ben Mohamed ben Mohamed al-Ayadi as head the European offices of the Muwafaq Foundation ▪ The 1995 testimony of Talad Fuad Kassem, who said that the Muwafaq Foundation had provided logistical and financial support for a fighters’ battalion in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that the Muwafaq Foundation was involved in providing financial support for terrorist activities of the fighters, as well as arms trafficking from Albania to Bosnia and Herzegovina ▪ Al-Qadi's role as a major shareholder in the now closed Sarajevo-based Depositna Banka, where planning sessions for an attack against a United States facility in Saudi Arabia may have taken place ▪ Al-Qadi's ownership of several firms in Albania which funneled money to extremists or employed extremists in positions where they controlled the firm’s funds ▪ Evidence that Bin Laden provided the working capital for up to five of al-Qadi’s companies in Albania. Based on these reasons, the U.N. Security Council resolved to continue listing Yasin al-Qadi as a suspected supporter of al-Qaeda terrorists and the United States Department of Treasury has continued to classify Qadi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. edit January 2010: UK Supreme Court delists Qadi On 27 January 2010, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (the highest appellate court for the UK) annulled the listing criteria of "the 2006 Order," the Al Qaeda and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2006. In the case of Her Majesty's Treasury (Respondent) v. Mohammed Jabar Ahmed and Others UKSC2, the UK Supreme Court struck down the operative part of the legislation, and ruled that it must be quashed as being ultra vires (illegal).132138 Thus Qadi's removal from a second UK list of persons designated as terrorists "was done as the result of the finding of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom that any such designation (as was done in Mr. Kadi's case in contravention of his fundamental rights) was illegal."132 edit September 2010: EU Court rules in Qadi’s favor, faults UN procedures On 30 September 2010, the EU General Court once again ruled in favor of Qadi, “noting that the UN procedure, despite improvements in the establishment of an Ombudsman Office to make recommendations on delisting requests, lacks fundamental due process protections, including sufficient notice of the charges and denying ‘most minimal access to the evidence against him.’ " It said: “In essence the Security Council has still not deemed it appropriate to establish an independent and impartial body responsible for hearing . . . decisions taken by the Sanctions Committee.” (Paragraph 128).124 According to Qadi's solicitors at the Carter-Ruck firm, the ruling had the effect of striking down the European asset-freezing regulation that was imposed on Qadi on 28 November 2008, after Qadi had won his appeal to the European Court of Justice.139 edit 8 September 2011: Sued by Lloyd's for 'funding 9/11 attacks' Qadi was among nine defendants sued by the Lloyd's of London insurance syndicate on 8 September 2011 in a "landmark legal case against Saudi Arabia, accusing the kingdom of indirectly funding al-Qa'ida and demanding the repayment of £136m million it paid out to victims of the 9/11 attacks."140141142 Formally titled Underwriting Members of Lloyd's Syndicate 3500 v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia et al., the civil suit was filed in Pittsburgh (the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania)49 by attorney Steven Cozen of Cozen O'Connor.143 “Absent the sponsorship of al Qaeda’s material sponsors and supporters, including the defendants named herein, al Qaeda would not have possessed the capacity to conceive, plan and execute the September 11th attacks,” according to the 154-page complaint.144 Yasin al-Qadi is listed along with the following defendants: ▪ The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) ▪ The Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SHCR)145 ▪ The Saudi Joint Relief Committee for Kosovo and Chechnya (SJRC)146147 ▪ The Saudi Arabian Red Crescent Society (SRCS) ▪ The National Commercial Bank (NCB)148 ▪ The Al-Rajhi Bank and Investment Company (ARABIC) ▪ Prince Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz al Saud ▪ Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi (SAAR)149 On 19 March 2012, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed Qadi’s 2009 lawsuit against the officers of the U.S. Department of Treasury (OFAC). Judge John D. Bates held that more than 2,000 pages of evidence gave OFAC sufficient “reason to believe” that Qadi provided support to terrorists or people associated with them. “It also left open the question of whether or not Qadi had sufficient financial ties to the U.S. to require due process protections, since it found that even if he did the OFAC reconsideration process is sufficient." ------------------ Yassin Al-Kadi:Still in business Up until the middle of 2005, Clearstream Banking of Luxembourg used to display on their website their list of customers from around the world.These clients included 2 companies from Malaysia, ABRAR DISCOUNTS BERHAD and ABRAR FUTURES SDN BHD. Both these companies are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Abrar Group International Sdn Bhd, a company that is controlled by the SGDT Yassin Al–Kadi When Clearstream were questioned about the issue, that list was withdrawn from their website. Al–Kadi and his Malaysian associates Drs Rahim Ghouse and Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman started-up the Abrar Group in the US,but then shut-down their US operations at around the time that the FBI commenced investigations into their dealings.They then moved their base to Malaysia. However, a US subsidiary , SCR Financial Inc (formerly knownn as Abrar Securities Inc) , a NASDAQ licensed securities dealer,was transferred to Daniel R. Hutton, who was once an Abrar director. In the UK, Barclays Private Banking's set-up a shariah compliant mutual fund, Barclays Islamic Portfolio (BIP) in 1999. According to the Middle East Economic Digest the fund uses the National Management Consultancy Center (NMCC), Jeddah, as its shariah adviser. There is evidence that the NMCC is also a company headed by Yassin . In Australia, Dr Rahim Ghouse , who now heads the Muslim Community Co-Op Australia, recently received a licence from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission , ASIC , to act as an authorised representative for the shariah compliant Crescent Ethical Managed Discretionary Account product, which has been designed by the MCCA in collaboration with a Melbourne fund manager , Intrinsic Investment Management Ltd. The product is being promoted as a vehicle for investors with at least AUD 100,000 to invest in shares listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, in accordance with shariah principles. Ghouse remains a shareholder of Abrar Group International ,together with Yassin Al–Kadi . The MCCA under his watch has sponsored seminars in Australia on shariah compliant investing at which the main speaker was the CEO Abrar Discounts, Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Kamil. In 2003 and 2004, another MCCA employee, Zulfikar Mohd Shariff, launched a public campaign to discredit a number of journalists who were investigating an Australian incorporated shelf-company whose assets were said by the Rating Agency Malaysia to be worth USD 8 billion, mostly in cash. The company had obtained a licence to operate a deposit-taking bank in the Malaysian tax-haven of Labuan. The licence has since been varied so that Commercial IBT can only operate an investment bank. When questions were raised about the company by the Malaysian opposition, opposition MPs who raised the questions were approached by Yassin Al–Kadi and Ghouse's other partner , Wan Hasni Wan Sulaiman , in an attempt to stop questions being asked. ------ Copyright 1999 New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad New Straits Times (Malaysia) December 16, 1999 SECTION: National; Pg. 18 LENGTH: 495 words HEADLINE: Raya investment scheme different' DATELINE: Kuala Lumpur BODY: KUALA LUMPUR, Wed. - The Raya investment scheme, which was allegedly used to defraud seven investors, was different from the other schemes set up by Abrar Global Asset Managers Sdn Bhd, the Sessions Court heard today. AGAM's former chief operating officer Azihan Ibrahim said the differences included the absence of a prospectus and the fact that the return to investors had been fixed from the outset at 20 per cent. The Raya Fund, which is a share-financing scheme, also specifically involved Mun Loong Bhd shares and the duration of investment was only one year, he said. He was testifying under re-examination by Securities Commission Deputy Public Prosecutor Yaacob Md Sam at the trial of Abrar Corporation Bhd's former executive chairman Dr Wan Muhamad Hasni Wan Sulaiman. Wan Muhamad Hasni, 35, is charged with scheming to defraud seven investors by setting up an investment scheme called "Raya Fund" to finance the purchase of the shares of Mun Loong Bhd (now Abrar Corporation Bhd). He allegedly caused an investment of RM5 million placed with AGAM to be paid to Hamid Ahmed Mohammed Al Ghazali instead of into the scheme. He allegedly committed the offence at the office of AGAM's parent company, Abrar Group International, Level 7, Wisma Inai, 241 Jalan Tun Razak, between Feb 5 and Aug 18, 1997. Questioned by Yaacob, Azihan said AGAM had an investment portfolio of RM300 million in 1997 in the form of shares listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange and investments in two Canadian companies. He said the shares on the KLSE were "liquid" but those in the Canadian companies were not because they were subject to a moratorium. Azihan agreed that liquidity in AGAM depended on the KLSE shares which it held and could sell. Asked about the value of these shares from July 1997 onwards, he said overall the value of all shares on the KLSE fell. (Azihan testified yesterday that AGAM had cashflow problems in 1997 but would have been profitable if its investment portfolio was taken into account.) He also maintained that Hamid Ahmed, an Oman national to whom AGAM had sent RM5 million out of the Raya Fund, was not an investor in Raya Fund. He said a schedule of investors had included Hamid Ahmed's name because the latter was supposed to have invested RM5 million through AGI. However, AGAM's cash register showed that the money was never entered into the scheme. "The final numbers are in the cash register," he said. Earlier, during cross-examination by lawyer Terrance Marbeck, he said Hamid Ahmed was a Raya Fund investor. Marbeck later applied for Wan Muhamad Hasni's international passport to be released for "reasons as stated in the affidavit". Yaacob did not object and judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil released the passport. Marbeck also asked for an adjournment as he had an urgent matter to attend to in Ipoh tomorrow. Abdul Karim fixed Feb 21 to 25 and Feb 28 to March 3 for hearing. ------------------ Information from UN document: Yasin Al-Kadi, we do not possess personal data, but on the grounds of conducted operational check UPS registration of the said person has been established as stockholder of Depozitna banka D.D. Sarajevo which through the joining process became part of Vakufska banka. According to available information the named person is through business connected with Chafik Ayadi. Through available evidence checks presence of three persons that have resemblance in identification data has also been established: In the list under item a) persons who belong or are connected with the Taliban (under ordinal number 89) name of Abdul Jabbar has been mentioned, other data unknown. A person named Abdul Jabar could be found in our evidence, or more precisely: Abdul Kader Abdul Jabbar Ahmed Al Hamdani; Abdel Qader A.S. Al Kfaween; Abdul Haq. Chafik Ayadi, son of Mohamed and Medina, born on 21 January 1963 in Sfax, Tunisia, naturalized citizen of BiH, had registered residence in Sarajevo in the Street of Provare, No. 20, by profession a graduated engineer of architecture. He passes police evidence because of founded suspicion that he has committed a criminal act under Article 257, par.1 of FBiH Criminal Code (causing bankruptcy). For the said criminal act and on the grounds the Cantonal Court Sarajevo order international wanted circular has been sent out. According to this ministry available information Chafik Ayadi is in Ireland now, in Dublin. --------- Category:Characters Category:All